


Both For One

by rymyanna



Series: Ache [2]
Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bonding, Canon Compliant, Existential Crisis, Gen, Getting to Know Each Other, Look At Your Life Look At Your Choices, M/M, Magic, Post-Season/Series 02, Recovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-08 01:33:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18885421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rymyanna/pseuds/rymyanna
Summary: Freeing and befriending Aaravos has consequences. Viren is forced to realize that all his allies are elves, and that his plans didn’t play out the way he thought they would. In the middle of his latest existential crisis, his new bff is working hard to not let him sink. Viren doesn’t deal with that well, either. (continues Both Away And Inside)





	Both For One

**Author's Note:**

> This is longer than the previous two parts combined so I'm posting it as a separate oneshot. I don't know what got into me but here's 4.5k words of Viren not coping well. Have fun! (and tell me what you think, please)

To Viren’s shame, the toll his last spell took on him was great enough that he, despite being well on his way to recovery, couldn’t perform even the simple spell to bring a messenger crow to him. Naturally, when Aaravos did it for him, it didn’t take any effort. Viren took the letter from him with more force than necessary.

“Prince Ezran has been found,” Viren read out loud. “Or, King Ezran, as it stands.” He thought about burning the letter, but gave it back to Aaravos who resealed it and gave it back to the crow. He now knew that the princes were still alive, and traveling with a Moonshadow elf and the hatched dragon prince. What most surprised him, was that the crown prince wasn’t also headed for Xadia.

“So it seems,” Aaravos said, unfazed as ever. “You think our plan to make the other rulers listen was in vain.”

“The rulers of the other kingdoms might be fooled, and run scared to Katolis, but now there’s unlikely to be any military action against Xadia, not with pri- King Ezran.”

“The war is no longer your biggest concern.”

Viren looked up at him, searched his face. “Now that Ezran is king, you think he might pardon me.”

Aaravos gave a small shrug. “It is possible.”

“If it turns out I was right.” He could feel a headache coming on. “He’s a soft hearted child, so there’s a chance, but it also means that he won’t recognize the threat of war.”

“And you still think there is one.”

“At this point, it wouldn’t exactly be unprovoked.” _It might as well happen,_ he thought. _Everything else has gone to shit._

“Your thoughts take such dark turns. Eat something and get some more sleep,” Aaravos suggested.

While it was true that he hadn’t been eating or sleeping well, he wasn’t in the mood to be babied. “How am I supposed to just eat and sleep when my own people are after me?” Even if Aaravos was right, and Viren had no reason to think he wasn’t, it would take time for the political climate to be right for Viren to reemerge. What was he supposed to do in the meanwhile?

“You cannot come up with solutions while malnourished and cranky.”

Viren stomped his foot. “I am not cranky!” Children got cranky, he was worried for his life and the lives of the people, like a reasonable adult.

Aaravos didn’t look like he believed him.

“I’m being practical,” he argued. “I’m still not at full strength and we live in a cabin close to the people who want me executed.” If he had to be polite about the cabin Aaravos had secured him away in, he’d say that it was quaint.

“Yes, and therefore, getting to full strength should be your first priority, and to do that, you need food and rest.”

Viren gave his companion his best glare, but as usual, it didn’t do anything. “I,” he pointed a dramatic finger and failed to come up with anything to follow it with. So he put it down. “One day, I will win an argument and then you’ll be sorry.”

A corner of his friend’s mouth ticked up. “I will dread the day while you enjoy several meals and many nights of slumber.”

Viren shot him one final look, stomped to the cabin, ate the leftovers from their last meal and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.     

(1)

They still had their daily conversations. Now that Viren had hit the ground hard, they were mostly him ranting while Aaravos listened.

“...and now, all the things I’ve worked so hard to achieve have been taken away, and all I can do is wait for a child to decide my fate!” He felt drained again so he sat on one of the chairs by their quaint little table. He hated the cabin; it wasn’t fit for a person of his status. It was too rural for a lord and too nice for a traitor. “I can’t win, but you’re you so of course you’re powerful.” He regretted his words right away. Here he was, with a chance to connect with someone, and he let his temper get the better of him. As it always did.

Aaravos didn’t say anything for a moment, and Viren didn’t want to look at him and see him looking down at him. Admittedly, it was difficult for Aaravos to not look down; Viren wasn’t a short man but he didn’t need to duck every time he went through the average door. “It is true that I have some abilities from being born to the people I have,” Aaravos started. “But you are forgetting that I am the master of all the primal sources, and that is not by coincidence of birth.”

It was a lot more gentle of a reprimand than he had expected, and out of surprise, he forgot that he had meant to keep his eyes on the table. Aaravos was smiling, it was one that Viren had learned meant that he was being made fun of. Something inside of him bristled at the thought and then calmed again. _It’s fine._

“No need to look so frightened, I am very hard to offend.”

“I’m not frightened,” Viren snapped. “I just- I…” He had driven away everyone.

“The hardship of having your only friend and ally be a stuck up elf.”

It was meant as a joke-- on both of their expense, Viren realized-- but it hit a little too close to home. “You’re right, I don’t have anyone any more. Thank you for pointing it out.”

“What I said was in poor taste,” Aaravos conceded with a small nod. “I apologize.”

All the irritation left him like it had just been waiting for a signal. “It’s alright.” He took a moment to regroup. “It wasn’t so much the poor taste, just the bad timing,” he even managed a smile of his own.

“Such harsh words.”

“I’ve heard you’re very hard to offend.”

“And I need to be taken down a peg, no doubt.”

“Well, you are a stuck up elf, your words not mine.”

“There is another stuck up elf I could introduce you to.”

The words took Viren by surprise “What? I can’t go to Xadia, they’ll kill me.” He wasn’t sure who “they” were-- dragons, elves, rocks-- but death lived in Xadia and he couldn’t just march right in. “Aren’t you banished?” He never got the full story on that, now that he thought about it. And he wouldn’t get one today, if Aaravos’ smirk was any hint.

“I never said anything about going to Xadia.”

(2)

The stuck up elf turned out to be a Moonshadow elf living on a mountain. Aaravos introduced her as Lujanne, The Guardian of The Moon Nexus, and Viren as a human in need of temporary lodging.

“Great, another human, now I get to recycle all my jokes,” Lujanne the elf said. Viren couldn’t tell for sure if she was actually pleased with the situation or not.

“What do you mean, another human?” he asked. If this place was known, he’d know about it.

The elf narrowed her eyes, searching for something. “Why, the princes were here with their little friends. You look familiar.”

“I used to serve the king,” he supplied, distracted by the new information.

“No, that’s not it,” she waved it off. “Oh! You sort of look like those other young humans who tried to get the kids to come with them. Fooled them good with my illusions,” she grinned, making wavy motions with her fingers.

Viren glanced at her hands, “I’m sure you did. These young humans, was one of them a King’s Guard and the other a mage?”

She gave it some thought. “I suppose the boy was wearing some armor and the girl did perform that human practice.”

“I see.”

“You look like you could use some cake,” she pulled out what looked like a cake at first glance, but in reality was some admittedly impressive spell work over a plate of worms.

“I’m fine.” The last time he had spoken to Soren and Claudia, they had been under the watch of the guard, so it made sense that they hadn’t just blurted out the whereabouts of a sacred magical source, he supposed. But they had also told him that they hadn’t seen the princes, and what other reason was there for that, than to keep the information from him, specifically.

Aaravos placed a hand on his shoulder and started leading him away. “Allow me to show you to your quarters.” He and the elf exchanged a few more words, but Viren was no longer paying attention. Having a place to sit with his head in his hands sounded great, so he let Aaravos take him to a building, sit him down on a bed, and talk to him for a few moments before leaving.

It was the most comfortable bed he had had in a long time. He couldn’t enjoy it.

(3)

The next day, Aaravos dragged him to go sit with the elf, Lujanne, in an outdoors seating area. He shared what was probably a meaningful look with the other elf, and left her and Viren to their own devices.

Viren guessed they were meant to socialize. He wasn’t in the mood, but sitting in awkward silence was the worse option. “Did you teach him, then?” he asked.

Lujanne looked relieved that she didn’t have to be the one to speak first. “Oh no, I was only an apprentice myself at the time, that was the Guardian before me,” she explained and then went on, “When the nasty business with the humans happened, I was here, performing my duty.” As if she could reassure him that things between them were fine and none of it mattered. To her it might not, but Viren wanted to press her on which nasty business with the humans she was referring to. And he would have, had he the energy.

“So you don’t know anything about him, either,” was what he said instead.

She smiled. “I’m afraid there’s nothing I can tell you on that front.”

“Great.” The only common ground they had was Aaravos and they couldn’t even talk about him. They just sat there for a time, avoiding eye contact while pretending to take in the scenery.

“I can show you around,” she got up, casting Viren a glance that spoke of something a bit grandmotherly. “I also have an extensive library and The Archmage tells me you’re fluent in several languages.”

That sparked his interest, as much as it could be sparked. He got up to follow her. “It’s not like I have anything better to do.”

He had to admit that the Nexus was beautiful, and what history he could learn from Lujanne’s eccentric explanations was fascinating. The library was filled with books on moon magic, and while he couldn’t put the information to practical use, it was still interesting to read about magic from elven perspective.  

Lujanne was hovering by him as he perused. When he turned to look at her with raised brows, she smiled, the corners of her eyes crinkling. “You’re welcome, young man.”

He only rolled his eyes a little. “Thank you for your time.”

“I knew you’d be a quick study,” she called out as she flitted away.

(4)

Aaravos was back by nightfall, joining Viren and Lujanne at the table. The food was vegetable based and the drink nonalcoholic. Viren longed for proper drink, especially after learning about the latest news Aaravos had plucked from the air somewhere.

“Opening negotiations with the elves,” Viren scoffed, glaring at his juice.

The elves he dined with didn’t look impressed with him.

“Not the elves, they’re such an unreasonable sort,” Lujanne said.

“Present company excluded,” he tried to smooth things over.

Aaravos raised an eyebrow. “As long as I am one of the good ones, I suppose.”

“I will drink to that,” she agreed and they toasted on it. Viren felt called out.

“I merely meant that, put in a historical context,” he gave it another shot, “You must admit that elves and humans haven’t had a great diplomatic relationship.” _To put it mildly._    

“Expressed like that, I have to agree,” Aaravos began and sipped his drink.

Lujanne got up. “If you’re serious about talking politics, I’m going to leave.” She wandered off somewhere, Viren didn’t pay attention.  

“But?” he knew there had to be one.

“Since we are talking about placing things in a historical context, many of your kingdom’s allies used to be your enemies.”

He could see where that argument was going. “And then we talked it out and now we’re all friends and everything is great. I think you’re forgetting the fighting that came before that and how in our greatest time of need, they all turned their backs on Katolis.”

“And it then follows that you would let all of them fall on this potential elven attack.”

Viren reeled back, “Of course not.” For one, they’d need to stand together for a chance to win, and for another, he wasn’t a complete monster and pointless suffering was always pointless suffering.

Aaravos looked at him over the rim of his cup. “So you must not see all of them as unreasonable and traitorous.”

He knew Aaravos was working up to a point, a point in which he’d lose the argument and need to rethink his life while still in the middle of rethinking his life. He couldn’t handle it, not now. “I can think that and still not want them to suffer. What did you say, about those who fail the test of love? And who were the ones that imprisoned you again?” He paused for effect. “That’s right, your precious elf friends.”

Aaravos narrowed his eyes. “My argument is not that all ideas elves have are good and just, do not twist my words to cover the holes in your thinking.”

He heard his chair hit the ground as he shot to his feet. “My life is full of holes! So I guess my thoughts might as well!” He turned to leave, kicked the fallen chair out of his way, and stormed to the guest quarters. He got the last word, but he didn’t feel like a victor.

(5)

He didn’t see Aaravos the next day. Not that he went looking, it was just that he had gotten so used to the elf’s presence that he felt the absence. His chest scar ached.

By the time night fell, he had been outside once, to wander the premises. The rest of the day he had lied in bed, unable to nap or to read. The books Aaravos had brought him after he’d let it slip that he missed the royal library, stacked on the bedside table seemed to mock him. And after he’d expressed concern about being so close to the castle, Aaravos had arranged for him to come here, to the Moon Nexus. He was safe and he had plenty of reading material, and, he supposed, some outside companionship in Lujanne.

And he had spat on all of it.

“You poison everything you touch,” he muttered to himself, at himself.

“I have a few counterarguments.”

Viren froze and it felt like his heart stopped, too, for a second. He hadn’t heard the door. Then he reminded himself to breathe. “You would.” At least his chest stopped hurting.

The other side of the bed, the one his back was facing, dipped. “I do not wish to fight.”

He blew the breath out through his mouth and rolled over, so they could talk face to face. He’d have to get up, too, but he needed to work himself up for it. “I don’t, either. I-” he paused to clear his throat, “I know what I said was uncalled for.”

“It was,” Aaravos agreed. “But it is possible that I chose a bad time to push you.”

“You definitely did.” _Don’t start anything,_ he reminded himself. “I’m just, and it’s no excuse, but I’m going through some things, right now, and you probed some painful places, and I’m not saying they were what you were aiming for, but, that’s what happened.” He might have some skill in other areas but apologizing was not one of them. The classic There’s No Excuse But Let Me Make One Anyway had sped him right through divorce.

“You have had several major life changes in a short amount of time.”

Viren felt some intense appreciation for Aaravos’ even temper and insight. It annoyed him at times, the unflappability, but right then it was the best quality a person could have. “Yes, I have. Thank you for understanding.”

With a shift in position, some of Aaravos’ hair fell over his shoulder. “There is no need for gratitude, it is all fairly simple.”

And there it was; his best friend was a jerk. “None of it is simple,” Viren sat up so he could be eye to eye with Aaravos. For him to accomplish that, Aaravos had to slouch, which Viren had never seen him do before. “What are you doing?”

Aaravos straightened his posture. “Making amends.”

“Right, that’s, fine.” He was so bad at this. Whatever this was.

“I thought you were some manner of diplomat.”

“And I thought you did not wish to fight,” Viren shot back. Before it could escalate, he put his hands up. “I’m just trying to say that I’m having a hard time, please don’t make light of it, alright?” To Viren’s relief, again, Aaravos inclined his head.

“Alright,” he agreed. “I wanted to see if I could distract you from your worries for a time.” He pulled out a blue ball. One moment it wasn’t in his hand, and the next it was.

“With sleight of hand?” Viren questioned; he wasn’t The Archmage, but he was still an archmage. Or he had been; maybe Claudia would inherit his title now that he was among the unwanted. He tried not to take it personally. “I was the archmage of Katolis, you know.”

“I am aware,” Aaravos informed him, smiling like he was indulging Viren’s whims. “And that is no small feat.”

His ego a little bit more secure, he realized that this was Aaravos open to answering questions about magic. It made him feel something other than despair or misery. Excitement, was the word. He launched into the first line of questioning that came to him, “I always thought you needed to be born with a connection to a primal source or to have a primal stone to do primal magic, but you weren’t born connected to all of them, right? And you don’t just have primal stones stored in your robes. So, how? Everything I managed to get out of Lujanne and the books here enforced the idea that you need an innate understanding of the source to use it.” He was rambling, but his friend didn’t seem to mind. On the contrary, Aaravos’ eyes lit up, pleased.

“Understanding is the key,” he said. “But it is something you can acquire.”

Viren leaned towards him. “Acquire how?”

“It works differently for everyone, and perhaps being connected to the cosmos gave me an edge.”

It was as though he was transported back to his days as a mage in training, when he had been a wide eyed child, eager to learn everything there was to know. “So I take it the previous Guardian gave you some broad basics and then you figured it out from there?”

“More or less.”

“The cosmos,” Viren muttered, his mind jumping from one fact to another. “The moon’s in space,” he said before he could think about his wording, eyes wide with understanding. Aaravos laughed at him, but he was too into the learning experience to get irritated. “Oh shut up, you know what I’m getting at.”  

Aaravos recovered quickly enough. “To put it more eloquently, the moon is on a journey through space, the same way this world, and everything in it, is.” He demonstrated with the ball, looping it in the air, “Circling your sun, which is just another star of many.” Drawing the flames from the couple lit candles around the room, he formed a light for the ball to circle around, and cast an illusion of tiny, twinkling dots to represent the stars in the otherwise dark room. “Round and round, in the near endless cosmos,” he whispered, and Viren hadn’t realized that they were in whispering distance, but one of them must have moved closer to the other.

It was mesmerizing to look at, the blue ball, the dancing flame, the star dots. So of course he opened his mouth, “Yes, if only the cosmos was a bit wider, it would be endless.” Snide remarks ruined important moments, as he had learned.

“You have caught me,” Aaravos admitted, and he didn’t sound angry at all.

Viren tore his eyes away from the light show around them and redirected his stare to the other kind of light. His friend was a starry night all of his own, sitting right next to him. _Oh,_ he was at a loss for words, and that didn’t happen to him. Or it never used to, until Aaravos, the primal force of the cosmos. _Oh no,_ he thought, feeling adrift in life, yet anchored in the moment. It didn’t help that his friend chose then to dispel the illusion and with it the lights in the room. Aside from the light emanating from him.

Viren felt a deep, personal connection to moths, all of a sudden. And what happened to a moth once it touched the flame. He got off the bed, far from graceful. “I uh, well, I’ve been cooped up in here all day and I need a walk, outside.” As opposed to a walk inside? _Stupid._    

“Viren,” Aaravos said, and Viren must be losing it because his expression looked like he was pleading with him and that couldn’t happen. How was he ever supposed to say no to anything Aaravos asked of him. _When have you, so far?_ Viren asked himself and found that the answer was that he hadn’t.

“I’d like a moment alone, excuse me.” He marched out of the room and ran for it once he shut the door. After he pounded up the few steps to the ancient ruins, he stopped to catch his breath. He wasn’t as young as he used to be. When he got up from leaning on his knees, he looked up. More stars. There was no escaping the universe.

“I fear I have overstepped,” Aaravos spoke, off to the side so Viren could see him in his peripheral.

He sighed, turned fully to face his friend, accepting that he couldn’t run away, couldn’t get a moment. “What do you want from me?”

“Your companionship.” It sounded so simple, calmly stated out loud.

“Define companionship,” Viren demanded, and added, “Not the dictionary definition, what it means to you in relation to me.”

The pause before Aaravos spoke and the thoughtful look he wore, had Viren holding his breath in anticipation. “I have enjoyed our conversations, I thought you had as well.”

“Then what was that?” he gestured wildly towards the guest houses.

“Me, trying to make amends,” Aaravos said, articulating with care.

“Trying to get into my _good graces_?” Viren accused, unsure why he was so vicious and defensive about it.

Aaravos tilted his head to the side, like a curious forest creature. “You thought I was attempting to seduce you and panicked.”

_Yes!_ “Don’t be absurd,” Viren said, crossing his arms, still defensive but a lot less vicious.

“Ah. I was succeeding in seducing you and you panicked, my mistake.”

The insight into his inner workings truly was both a blessing and a curse. “So that was what you were doing!”

The way Aaravos shifted his weight, gave Viren the impression that he, too, felt like crossing his arms. “It is not my fault you find starlit nights romantic.”

“Everyone finds them romantic!” Viren shouted, face hot. His friend looked to the side, searching for some bit of knowledge.

“That explains a lot,” he muttered.

Viren opened his mouth to shout some more but then he really looked at Aaravos. If he ignored the imposing height and the voice and the general ethereal nature, Aaravos did look like he could be young, for an elf. It somehow hadn’t occurred to Viren that he’d be the more mature one of the two of them. _What a disaster._

“It seems I’ve misread the situation,” Viren said, sounding more like he was asking a question than he would have liked. He actually heard Aaravos breathe so it must have been a sigh.

“Let us go with that.”

Viren let his hands drop, defeated. “You are impossible to have a conversation with sometimes, you know that, right?”

“I have been made aware.”

“Be that way, then.” It was late, he had had a rough day, and he was tired of fighting and riddles. “You say you want my companionship, you can have it. I still feel like I should let you know that I’m not relationship material.” He rubbed at his face; he needed to shave. “Romance hasn’t worked out well for me, that is, I have been unable to make it work. I’m not clear on if that’s something you want, but just in case it is, a fair warning.” Distantly, he realized that there wasn’t a clear “No” anywhere in there. Just a general heads up. When he ruined everything again, at least Aaravos had been warned.

Aaravos looked down for a second before re-establishing eye contact. “We have only just met, and you will not be here for long. What I want, is to make the most of the time we have, in whatever way you will allow.”

In response to the unprecedented honesty, Viren stared, mouth open. He didn’t have anything intelligent to say, and what he ended up saying was, “You like me,” in an awed voice, like a child.

“I thought it obvious.”

He supposed it was, from how well he had been treated, but a tiny, scared part of him, had attributed the generosity to pity. Like Aaravos didn’t have anything better to do, and no other friends, so out of necessity he had hung around Viren. The same way Viren had nothing else going on for him. Not that it’s ever been about pity, in his case. “I’ve been an idiot.”

Aaravos smiled and stepped closer. “Yes.”

A cross between a laugh and a sob broke out of him, just a tad hysterical. “At least on that, we can both agree.” He gathered himself the best he could. “I’m sorry,” he said, thought it was best to leave it at that. A tension was leaving him, and judging from how Aaravos’ shoulders relaxed, it was mutual.

“Luckily for you, I can be very forgiving.”

“That is an excellent quality to have.” One he was going to be putting to the test, whether he meant to or not.     

 


End file.
